The term "steampunk" was made by Kevin Jeter in 1987. He tried to find a name for a style that joined science fiction and Victorian prose. Jeter’s own works — the novels "Morlock Night" and "Infernal Devices" — belong to this genre.
Dear Locus,
enclosed is a copy of my 1979 novel Morlock Night... I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing... like «steampunks», perhaps…
The term "steampunk" was coined by Jeter as an opposition to the term "cyberpunk", coined by American writer Bruce Bethke in his novel "Headcrash".
The steampunk joins the elements of other genres such as horror, fantasy, alternative history, etc. This style also divides into the seven subgenres:
- Boilerpunk;
- Clockpunk;
- Dieselpunk;
- Gaslight Romance;
- Mannerpunk;
- Raygun Gothic;
- Stitchpunk.